South University Child Safety in The Digital Age Discussion
South University Child Safety in The Digital Age Discussion
The discussion assignment provides a forum for discussing relevant topics for this week on the basis of the course competencies covered.
For this assignment, make sure you post your initial response to the Discussion Area by the due date assigned.
To support your work, use your course and text readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.
Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ initial postings. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Cite sources in your responses to other classmates. Complete your participation for this assignment by the end of the week.
This week, you examined the issues regarding child safety in the digital age.
As you discuss the following points, keep in mind that a “child” can be a young child or a teenager in high school.
- Are there better methods that we could employ to educate children about crime and the potential to be victimized? Is this an appropriate topic for school-aged children, and can we trust the schools to handle this task well?
- Consider a case where a teenager is pressured or bullied over social media to the point where he or she commits suicide. In an instance such as this, should the harassers face charges? Kids have said mean things to each other throughout the years….where do we draw the lines between free speech, typical adolescent behavior, and actual harm?
- Beyond the moral duty of the parent to protect the child, what legal responsibility should parents bear, if any? For instance, if a child suffers harm due to Internet interaction or social media, should the parent bear any legal blame?
- Last, it is a common police tactic to pose as an underage child in online chat rooms to attract and prosecute offenders seeking sexual contact with underage victims. Is this an appropriate use of the police? Certainly, all will be in favor of removing online predators before they can do actual harm, but is it fair to prosecute someone who merely “thinks” he is committing an offense? Since the officer posing as a child is, in fact, a grown adult, is there really a crime here?
